In a mechanical seal serving as one example of the sliding parts, performances thereof are evaluated by a leakage amount, a wear amount, and torque. In the prior art, the performances are enhanced by optimizing sliding material and sealing face roughness of the mechanical seal, so as to realize low leakage, long life, and low torque. However, due to raising awareness of environmental problems in recent years, further improvement in the performances of the mechanical seal is required, and there is a need for technical development going beyond the boundary of the prior art.
Under such circumstances, for example, in a mechanical seal of a water pump used for cooling a water cooling type engine, the present inventor confirmed that over time, LLC additive agents serving as a kind of an antifreeze such as silicate and phosphate (hereinafter, referred to as the “sediment causative substances”) are concentrated on sealing faces, sediment is generated, and there is a fear that functions of the mechanical seal are lowered. This generation of the sediment is thought to be a phenomenon that is similarly generated in a mechanical seal of a device in which chemicals and oil are used.
In the conventional mechanical seal, a mechanical seal in which a fluid introduction groove for forming a fluid layer on a sealing face is formed in order to prevent generation of wear and burnout due to friction heat generation of the sealing face is known (for example, refer to Patent Documents 1, 2, 3). However, a mechanical seal to offer a measure for preventing generation of sediment on a sealing face in addition to reduction of leakage and wear is not proposed in a current situation.